The supermoon has climbed into the skies of central Pennsylvania. With clear skies, the full moon climbing from the eastern horizon will look as big and as bright as it can.

A supermoon presents a view of the moon that is about 14 percent larger than any other view of that satellite at any other time. It's also about 30 percent brighter.

Most astronomers do not use the term supermoon except when responding to media queries or attempting to use the pop-culture image to attract interest to the stars. Astronomers know it as the perigee full moon.

'"Supermoon is a situation when the moon is slightly closer to Earth in its orbit than on average, and this effect is most noticeable when it occurs at the same time as a full moon," said James Garvin, chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "So, the moon may seem bigger although the difference in its distance from Earth is only a few percent at such times."

Orbiting the Earth in an elliptical path that ranges from about 222,000 miles to about 252,000 miles out from the planet, the moon comes closest to the Earth - its perigee - every 27 days or so. We might not be able to see it because of the phase of the moon during some perigees, but it's hard to miss when the closest approach coincides with a full moon, which happens an average of every 13 months 18 days, according to Geoff Chester with the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

In a much rarer circumstance, there are three super moons this summer. The first occurred Sunday, July 13. The largest is tonight. The third will happen Monday, Sept. 8.

Moonrise tonight came at about 8 p.m. Moonset early Monday morning - 7:11 a.m. - at our western horizon might also be worth a look.

If you get a nice photo of it, share it with other readers at PennLive by sending it, with your full name, hometown and time taken, to Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com.